School Holidays

School holidays for us lasts for just over a month. That's because Nadiah's classes at NASOM went on till the end of November. Everything was jam packed in the first two weeks of December with weddings, Nadiah's schooling for 2009, Nadiah's school assessment and taking her jalan-jalan. It didn't help that everyday over the holidays she woke up at 7 am when before that it was such a struggle just to get her to open her eyes at 8.30 am. But this past month, she's up and about, all fresh from her shower by 7.30 am. Then right after breakfast, she's out of the house playing with water and sand, building sand castles.

No, we're not at the beach. Hubby got some sand from next door where they're doing some construction, and dump a load in the empty flower bed. But water + sand = a girl who is soaked all over from the "extra" shower. This happens several times a day, so just imagine the laundry I have to do each day... *sigh*

Hubby and I have to take turns watching over her every hour or so, because she gets into all sorts of trouble. During craft time, she gets glue all over her, the blanket, her hat and don't even mention the table. Or she finds some blue tack, thinking it's play doh: she's rolling it out, stretching the thing and opps.... it's stuck on her head, pressed flat over her hair and scalp. So we had to cut some chunks of her hair to get it off. *sigh sigh*

But to give her credit, she loves doing all these. They might drive Mama and Baba up the wall, but what does she care? She's a kid and kids do these things huh?

Anyway, over the holidays we were down in KL for two weekends in a row. The first was for my cousin, Nana's wedding to Faizal in Damansara. She's the youngest girl cousin on mom's side of the family. It was great to be able to meet up with the family again and catch up on each other and get the family gossip of the moment.. hahaa!! Although some cousins couldn't make it but all in all, everybody was pretty happy with everything. Here's some pics from the events:

The bride and groom (obviously!)

Mother of the bride blessing the couple

At the reception, Nadiah was a lot more happy spending time at the fountain rather than in the hall...

Imran, my cousin's son, being cheeky

Me with cousin and niece

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Then the next weekend, we were back in KL again. On Saturday, we decided to take Nadiah to Taman Pertanian Bukit Cahaya Sri Alam (or something like that) in Shah Alam. We were hoping to get her to experience some snow as we heard that they have some over there.

So off we went to Shah Alam, not really sure what to expect. We got there around 10.30am and saw on the board that the 4 Seasons House is experiencing winter. Oohhh.. we were so excited. Or rather, Mama and Baba were. Nadiah didn't really know what was going on. She thought we were going to see some lions.

We got in line for the open-air bus ride which would take us (we hope) to the House. When the bus came and we got on, Nadiah was really amazed that the bus had no windows and she could feel the breeze in her hair. I had one arm around her all the time in case she leaned out just a tad too far. The bus took us everywhere in the park and it was a BIG rain-forest park. S0 many things to see in just a glance from the ride. I saw an animal park, a spice garden, a bird park, some cultural buildings which I didn't get to read the name and of course the 4 Seasons House.

When we got to the House, we got our tickets, and pushed through the entrance, we could already feel the slight drop in temperature. The first hall had some exhibits on how the snow house was made and such things. We didn't bother with that but went straight to the double doors on the other side. So we rushed in and.... Man, it was cold!! It's a hallway with glass windows on each side. In the windows we could see scenes of snow in the winter with frozen lakes, penguins, snowman and an igloo. Basically everything was covered in snow. There was also a door on each side where we could go into the "scene" and walk on the bridge and pretend like you're actually somewhere in Canada or Hokkaido or the North Pole (that's the igloo bit). It was freezing in there!

The thing was, we weren't prepared for the place and didn't even have on a jacket, let alone mittens and scarves. Nadiah had on a skirt and I imagined her legs were probably freezing by the time we got out. But she didn't want to go into the glass rooms. I reckon she was confused by all the whiteness and the cold that she was feeling. The 'snow' that we've been having at home, courtesy of the freezer, felt cold to the touch but never to the whole body. So that was quite a shock to her system.

But I thought it was beautiful in there. I would love to return for the spring, summer and autumn seasons.

Christmas Greetings

Wishing those celebrating a very Merry X'mas and a Happy New Year

Wishing all the Muslims SELAMAT HARI RAYA AIDILADHA.
To those driving back to their respective kampungs, do drive safely and take care.

A Fall And A Wonderful Revelation

Last night, while getting Nadiah ready for her shower, I slipped and fell in the bathroom. Although the fall was painful and the result being that I ache all over today, I realised something wonderful: not quite like Einstein had a revelation when an apple fell on his head but something of a smaller scale.

When I was lying on my bum (a very undignified position, I can assure you!), Nadiah came running to me crying out "What's wrong? what's wrong? oh sorry" and then she asked "Are you ok?" and tried to give me a hug. That's when I realised that she was concern and empathic.

*Empathy is the capacity to recognize or understand another's state of mind or emotion. It is often characterized as the ability to "put oneself into another's shoes", or in some way experience the outlook or emotions of another being within oneself.

In most cases, an autistic child seldom feels sympathy or empathy towards another due to the fact that they are either unable to comprehend the feelings in theirselves, let alone the feelings of others, or if they are able to understand, they find it hard to express empathy to others, as appose to feeling it internally.

Example:
Many times in the past years, I have cried out of frustration whenever I feel like such a failure with Nadiah's progress. Sometimes just little things like trying to get her to sleep after 2-3 hours of lying on the bed beside her and failed to get her to drift off. Usually after a whole day of running here and there and all I want to do is close my eyes and get a good night sleep, the last thing I want to do is lying stiff like a board on the bed, NOT being able to sleep because as soon as I move or close my eyes, she would be up again and the whole process would just start all over again. There are times when the frustration just boils up and I just had to have a good cry and while I was bawling like a baby, Nadiah would just ignore me and do her own thing as if she could not here me. And this frustrates me even more when a good hard hug would have been a balm to my soul.

So back to the fall, I realised three wonderful things.
First: Nadiah was able to understand that when you fall, you may hurt yourself and that it can be painful. And thus, she understood that and felt empathic towards me.

Second: She was sympathatic and corncern for me and that was why she wanted to know what was wrong and asking if I was ok.

Third: Not only was she able to feel those things, she was also able to express herself verbally. And not just a one word expression but a whole lot of stuff was coming out of her mouth.

In the midst of the fall, all my pain was just brushed aside, insignificant to the incredible feeling of my realisation. I pulled myself up, gave Nadiah a quick hug and a kiss while blinking rapidly several times so that tears will not fall. And I've been doing that several times since the incident whenever I thought of it. Even hubby was rendered speechless when he rushed over to the bathroom to see what was happening. Note that I pulled MYSELF up; no gentlemanly behaviour here, people!! I guessed he was struck dumb by Nadiah's show of concern.

It's days like these that I live for. One little incident that would erase all the other failures....

Twilight

In honour of the opening of the movie TWILIGHT on the 21st November, I have changed my blog background.

I think it's so cool....

Snow In The Hot Sun

A few days ago, Nadiah decided she wanted to dress up in winter gear. So she dug out a pair of gloves, a jacket and nicked the cerkup I wear for prayers. And after a few minutes of searching, I found my old woolen scarf and hang it around her neck.

She was ecstatic and ran downstairs to scrape for some "snow" in the freezer. I don't know where she gets these ideas but am only too happy that her imagination runs well. And so, to help her with her play, I decided to gather as much "snow" as possible into this big plastic cup. She was deliriously happy that she started to sprinkle some "snow" on herself and they look kinda real, like flecks of snow droppings on her clothes. I had to take pictures, of course..

With "snow" on her head and scarf

Tying her scarf

"Snow" in her hands

"Snow" from the freezer

Vampires Anyone?

Do you ever notice that since the emergence of Harry Potter and Lord of The Rings on the silver screen a few years back, books and more movies are made around these fantasy, paranormal, psychic, urban myths and legend hullabaloo? And it was no surprise that I fell right into the trap!!

I adore the Harry Potter series, both the movies and the book series. And I just can't get enough of The Lord of the Rings. Admittedly I was one of those who saw the movie first without reading the book. But when I did, I straight away went out of my way to get the books and read it cover to cover, including the appendix. Not enough with just reading the book, I had to browse every LOTR site there was on the internet. Once or twice a year, I still have HP or LOTR marathons whenever possible.

Then about 2 years ago, I got hooked on vampire books. The first book I bought was Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. And wasn't I ecstatic to find out that the movie will be coming out soon. Since Twilight, I've read New Moon and bought Eclipse and Breaking Dawn, of which the last two books I've yet to read.

Then there came the Otherworld series by Yasmine Galenorn. The books are about the three D'Artigo sisters: Camille is a witch; Delilah, a ware-cat; and Menolly, a vampire. These three sexy, ass-kicking, half human, half Fairie sisters are out to save the world from the evil forces of Shadow Wing, the leader of the Subteranean Realm. Hahaa.. you're probably thinking what the heck I'm talking about. But it's great!

But the books that I really got seriously hooked on are the Dark series (or sometimes called the Carpathian series) by Christine Feehan. One day I saw a couple of titles in the series at Popular Bookstore and I chose just one, just to give it a try. The next day, I went back and bought all the other titles. After browsing the website, I found out that there are 18 books in the series that have already been printed. And I had to have them ALL of course. Those that were not at the bookstore, I made the people there order for me. And it wasn't just to be any book printed on the series. They had to be from a certain publisher so that when I arrange the books on my shelf (in order of the series, of course), I have the pleasure of seeing the books in order and of the safe cover design and height. That was how obsessed I was!! And yes, you've guessed it, I have every single title from the series except the latest new release. That is only because it's in largeprint and thus will not be of the same height as the other books. I read the books day in and day out and in a year, I've read every single book twice already and some even 3-4 times. Hubby is baffled with my strange obsession with the books. And so am I.

Nah... no, I'm not. I'm just weird. I just get into the characters and the plot that sometimes I have difficulty drawing a line between reality and fantasy.

Ok, now that we've establish how weird I can be, shall we stop now before you decide what a complete nutcase I am?

I'll leave you with a picture of some of the Dark books



Ta, see you in a few days....

Bowling Day

This time I'm not going to even comment on how long it's been since I last blogged, nor make any such promises that I would be more diligent and update regularly. Because I know I will renege on that promise again and again. So I won't even bother. Instead, I'm just going to start blogging like months and months had not passed and ignore the "basi-ness" of some news. There! Now I can start.

Among Nadiah's hundreds of VCDs, there is one that shows kids playing bowling which she keeps watching again and again. So one day, hubby and I thought we would take her to the bowling alley and see if she would be interested. Usually places like that are really noisy with the music blaring out of the speakers, bowling balls being rolled across the floor and crashing against the pins. Not to mention people shouting and jumping up and down when there was a strike. So I wasn't too encouraged when we neared the place.

But then Nadiah suprised me when she walked in without a blink of an eye and only belatedly tried to reduce the sound around her by sticking a finger in each ear. And even that was done half heartedly. When I tried to get her hands down, she complied without much arguement. So that was a start.

One look at her face, I knew that she was excited. What with all those coloured balls sitting nicely in a row. I think she was amazed to see that she was actually there, at the bowling alley, just like the one she's been watching on her computer. But then, that day was just a trial to see if she would even step into the place. We stayed for a few minutes more to let her soak everything in and promised her we'll come again another day.

And so we did. After a few days, with our socks on hand, off we went. On the way, we kept talking about bowling to get her all hyped up. And she was. She was so excited that we could hardly make her stop and sit for a little, while Baba registered and get our shoes.

So how did she do?

Well, she's 6. What do you expect? I don't think I'll be dreaming of her in the Olympics pretty soon. I think we spent more time chasing after her then we did on the floor rolling the ball. She just did not get the concept that different coloured balls have different weights. If it was up to her, she would like to "throw" the ball according to the colour of the rainbow, regardless of the weight. At one time, it was Nadiah rolling on the floor instead of the ball. Thank God there were not many people around or we would have gotten the boot for sure!

But all in all, she had a blast!! Mama and Baba on the other hand, was totally exhausted.....

Choosing the right ball

Getting ready to "throw" the ball

Disappointed that her ball just disappeared down the drain

Giving Baba a hi10 after she managed to hit a few pins

Trying to pick up the 15lbs ball on her own

But she sure did enjoyed herself.... so that's what matters.

In The Month Of Ramadhan

Everyday, time and time again, I would tell myself that "today I will update my blog". But today becomes another day, and another day etc etc... Mostly it' s because I've been swamped up to my head with beading. I hardly have any time at all for anything else. It's the 21st day of puasa and I've only been to the pasar Ramadhan twice. But I am happy to report that the beading is coming to an end and hopefully by Friday I'll be beading-free. Well, except for my own baju kurung, which is looking like I'll probably be going bead-less again this year. Don't have the energy or the enthusiasm to work on my own baju.

Despite the workload, I did managed to go out once in a while to do my shopping for the coming Hari Raya. I'm glad to have done most in my list. There's just the kuih raya to get for Nadiah's teachers, MIL and for our house. Then it's to the kitchen for the back aching work of preparing our traditional cookies: makmur and cornflakes cookies. Mom has already warned me that she'll be sitting out for this year's cookie-making. Said she is too old to sit for hours on end shaping the makmur into perfect ovals and thus leaving everything in my capable hands. Oh dear, I am hoping this week would go slowly so that I'll have ample time to rest before the back-aching work starts.

Ok, I'll update again later on. I'm feeling really tired now and can hardly get my eyes open. Till then, selamat berbuka puasa...

Singing Diva

My brother bought Nadiah a cool microphone set with speakers the other day. The mic is in the shape of a flower and the speaker is also a flower coiling on the floor to hold up the stand. It's so funky and I have to say that it was a brilliant buy coz my darling Nadiah has turned into one singing diva!

In the beginning, when we were unpacking the mic from the box and she didn't know what it was, she wasn't very interested. Then I called to her through the mic and I could see the curiosity in her eyes. She tried a couple of lines from one of her many favourite songs and from then on, she was unstoppable.

Picture time:




Of course I couldn't resist scrapping about it and you can see my layout here.

Ramadhan 1429

I would like to take this opportunity in wishing all my Muslim friends and blog readers a very happy Ramadhan. May you be blessed in this holy month.

Merdeka, Merdeka, Merdeka!!

Happy 51st birthday, Malaysia!!!

May we have peace and harmony for many, many years to come!

Summer Olympics 2008

Did you watch the Beijing Olympic opening last night? I thought it was absolutely spectacular!! Admittedly I didn't watch the whole thing, but what I did watch held me in complete awe. That dance-handwriting routine on the painting scroll... amazing!!! And that moving blocks... fantastic!! That the performances were practiced since the last 8 years was well worth all their tremendous effort!!

Feeling The Blues

I think I'm coming down with something. Got a tummy ache, I hurt all over and I feel like throwing up a time or two. No.. it's not the P word!! Just a bug, I'm sure.

I'm going to have an early nite tonite. So, nitey-nite and see ya!!

{Fishy} Update

For those of you who have been wondering about Nadiah's fish... I have good news and I have bad news.

The good new is that she loved the fish so much that we've been adding more and more fish of different types. At the last count, there were about seven of them.

The bad news is, one night was I prowling around in the semi darkness looking for something (I don't remember what) and I think I must have kicked the wire to the oxygen/filter thingy and apparently it was a good hard kick that the socket came off and stopped all O2 from flowing into the water. Then next morning I see 7 dead fish floating away in the tank.

Yup!! That's me... the fish murderer!!

This Blog Desperately Needs Updating

Yes, yes, I know. Don't need to tell me. I've been lazy and neglecting this blog. Plus, I've been neglecting my friends' blogs as well. Don't really know what's happening in their lives as of this moment. Some of them has probably gone private and block me from their sites. Ok, I'll try to be a better blogger from now on. But mind you, TRY is the operative word here. I'm not making any promises!! :D

Anyway, things has been happening in these last few months. Well, 4 months couldn't have gone by without SOMEthing happening, right? In this case, it's mostly in my scrapbooking world. I've been chosen to be in the design team in another scrapbooking site - ScrappingGlitz. It's new, it's fresh and has lots of new product brands. At the same time, I've been reinstated as a Guest Designer's Team with Scrappingville till the end of the year. So that's another great thing!! I guess that's why I've been a little busy lately. With projects to complete, challenges and online crops to host etc, etc, etc.... Do visit my scrapping blog here to see some of my latest work.

On the home front, everyone is doing fine and dandy. Nadiah, especially. She is doing so much better this year in school and NASOM. Teachers are all happy to report that she is talking so much this year. Also, she's not afraid to do things that she was last year. So that is very good progress. Next week, Nadiah is taking part is the school's Sport's Day. Last year, she absolutely refused to go down to the grounds even for practices. Simply dig in her feet and started crying hysterically. But this year, oh she's been enjoying the practices so much that I'm so proud of her. I especially love the times when I fetch her from school and she would tell me "That was great!" as soon as she comes out the door. Keeps repeating it until I acknowledge her day. Those are the moments that I treasure most!!

It's just over a month to Ramadhan and a month after that, Hari Raya comes along. It would be very soon that I'll be swamped with beading work, I'm sure. So I'm taking what precious days I've got and take things easy and enjoy life.

Till the next time, my friends!!!

Gold Fish

We got Nadiah 2 gold fish today. One is named Dorothy; as in Elmo's Dorothy. And the other is named Goldy. It's been 5 hours since we brought the fishes home and since then Nadiah has fed them at least 7 times. I just hope they'll still be swimming around tomorrow morning... *sigh*

12th General Election 2008

9.25am

Right! I did it! I've done my part. Now we'll just have to wait till results' time...

Another Tag

I got tagged by Liza. Finally going to do this..

You must post the rules before you give your answers. You must list one fact about yourself for each letter of your middle name. Each fact must begin with that letter. If you don't have a middle name, just use your maiden name. After you've been tagged, you need to up-date your blog with your middle name and answers. At the end of your post, you need to tag one person for each letter of your middle name. (Be sure to leave them a comment telling them they've been tagged and need to read your blog for details).

H = Honest

A = Adventurous

S = Scared of a flying cockroach

N = Nice & friendly

I = Independent

I'm tagging: Hani, Anis, Sha, Naddy, Ida

Sunday Morning Ramblings

Gosh!! Feeling really tired this morning. Had a late night last night with online cropping at Scrap-n-Crop Forum. But before that, we went to Sg Petani to take Nadiah swimming. Most of the family was there also and everyone opted to have dinner at the club. I kept looking at my watch, hoping that dinner will go quickly and we can be back by 9 pm when the cropping starts.

Arrived home a few minutes before 9 and had to quickly rush through my shower, getting Nadiah into her PJs and printing photos for the crop. By 9.30 I was in front of the pc and all ready to go. The crop was fun and the challenges were... well challenging. Mainly because my brain was tired and it was refusing to work and I just could not think artistically!! Anyway, you can view here for the layouts.

Now I'm just chilling out waiting for the time to go fetch Nadiah. I do have some beadings to do but really not feeling up to it... Will probably play game on the pc instead!!

38 Question Tag

This is in reply to Spectacularwave's tag which she did ages ago and I am only just doing.

1. Name one person who made you laugh last night?
My daughter, Nadiah when she tried to cut her cat's fur.

2. What were you doing at 0800?
Updating my blog.

3. What were you doing 30 minutes ago?
Still updating my blog.

4. What happened to you in 2006?
Can't remember.. must dig up my old diary

5. What was the last thing you said out loud?
"Nadiah, go to sleep!!!"

6. How many beverages did you have today?
None as yet. It's still early... or could the milk in the cereal count??

7. What color is your hairbrush?
Black.

8.What was the last thing you paid for?
A mini shelves in the shape of a house... which was a steal at RM25.00!!

9. Where were you last night?
Home.

10. What color is your front door?
Mahagony Brown.

11. Where do you keep your change?
In the coin compartment in my purse.

12. What’s the weather like today?
Hot.

13. What’s the best ice-cream flavor?
Vanilla and Chocolate.

14. What excites you?
Newly arrived scrapbooking stash and recently watching Capt Jack Sparrow in the Parites movies...

15. Do you want to cut your hair?
Definitely.. if only I could find the time

16. Are you over the age of 25?
Yup!!

17. Do you talk a lot?
Depends on the company.

18. Do you watch the O.C.?
Nope

19. Do you know anyone named Steven?
Don't think so... can't remember right this moment

20. Do you make up your own words?
Oh yeas... like 'merapu' + 'merepek' = 'merepu'

21. Are you a jealous person?
Not normally but there are special cases.

22. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter ‘A’.
Anis.

23. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter ‘K’.
Kay Own

24. Who’s the first person on your received call list?
My mom

25. What does the last text message you received say?
It sas, "Mebe next time i dtg plk... ehehe", Nad smsed me all the way from Perth

26. Do you chew on your straw?
Never.

27. Do you have curly hair?
Yes.. although it's more wavy rather than curly.

28. Where’s the next place you’re going to?
The post office.

29. Who’s the rudest person in your life?
I'm fortunate in never have met a person with extreme rudeness.

30. What was the last thing you ate?
Cereal

31. Will you get married in the future?
I'm already married. What sort of a question is this???!!

32. What’s the best movie you’ve seen in the past 2 weeks?
Pirates of the Caribbean - At World's End (ya I know, I know.. I'm a little ketinggalan!!)

33. Is there anyone you like right now?
Oh... it has always been Brad Pitt.... heheee!!

34. When was the last time you did the dishes?
Last night

35. Are you currently depressed?
No.

36. Did you cry today?
No.

37. Why did you answer and post this?
Because Spec tagged me and it is polite to do so when you've been tagged and plus, it's something to update my blog....

38. Tag 5 people who would do this survey.
I'm not going to tag anybody

2 Months in A Flash

Yes, I know, I know... I have been MIA again. But if you noticed, I have not been away completely. I have been updating my scrapbooking and beading blogs. It's just this one that I've been neglecting.

Many things has happened in this past two months. Some sad news and some good news touched our lives. I shall share the sadness first. One of our cats has passed away. Chit Chat or Chat as he is usually called, one day just became sick and deteriorate from then on. It started with a nose bleed. We took him to the vet but he could not find what is actually wrong with Chat. The vet said he could have had an accident or was in a fight or might have fallen from somewhere. Chet did have bruise at the back of his neck, but that appeared ages ago and we suspected a fight. After the vet had stopped the bleeding, we took him home. But he refused to eat and drink. After two days he just passed on. Poor cat... now Orange is left alone and missing her brother.

Honestly, Nadiah didn't really feel anything because she does not understand death. Furthermore, Orange has always been her favourite and nowadays she seldom play with the cats anyway.

The good news is, I have been selected as one of the Designer's Team for Scrappingville, a scrapbooking store in Bangsar Shopping Center. It will be for 6 months and I get to showcase my work at the store. I have done a few projects and you'll be able to see them at the store. So do visit Scappingville and have a lookie!!

Through scrapbooking I have met many talented ladies around the the country and also from Singapore and Brunei. Now if I go down to KL, I'll try to meet up with some of them. Most times are with Nad and Michelle. One of the times I was there, we had a cropping session at Michelle's and Nad brought some yummylicious cupcakes!!! And she even initialed the cuppies with a Y for Yatie and N for Nadiah. Nadiah loved it .. and so did her mom, naturally... :D. Nadiah also had a great time making art with Mich's kids, Clarissa and Sean. (psst.. guys, I know this was long ago but I just had to put up those photos of the cuppies... heheee!!)

Last weekend when I was in KL again, I dropped by Mich's house again for a lovely chit chat and she presented my with a handmade box full of creativity. She's such a creative lady!!
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First there was the socks phase..... stripy and colourful ones....


Then, came the wellies phase.... a fiery red ones!!!

Nadiah loves her wellies. As it had been a dry and hot month last month, all the water that she could find was in the dried drain which she sprayed water into. So that she could splash around.
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We also did a lot of swimming these past few months. Or rather, Nadiah did. It was either at the club or at home in our foldable pool. Sometimes with Amir, sometimes on her own. Nowadays Nadiah is more confident in the pool that she's refusing to use the floats on her arms and swimming float-less. She is also confident enough to get out of the kiddy pool and into the bigger kids pool, which she just decided to do so on her own. We have been trying to get her to try the bigger pool without any success. I guess she just decided that she's ready and just did it.

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Now that we're busy with school, Nadiah seldom has time to swim except on a few weekends. It's back to twice a day of school now. But her afternoon classes had a time change and now starts at 3 pm.

Ok, I now have two tags to write up and hopefully I can do so today. It's about time I catch up on my friends' updates....